Actor/singer slows down in Panama City Beach, sort of // VIDEOS

By CHRIS OLWELL / The News Herald

Published: Monday, September 23, 2013 at 07:16 PM.

“So it turned out that I needed my family when I came here, and then right as I was about to transition out of here they needed me,” Dottley said. “So I said, ‘OK, I can work my job for the most part, from anywhere … so I’ll just work from here for a while.’ ”

He comes and goes, but he’s starting a new venture in the coming weeks with his trainer. He’ll be launching Jason Dottley’s FABU (For a Better You), which he described as a sort of correspondence, self-improvement course emphasizing motivation, nutrition and physical fitness. He said he already has lined up clients locally and around the world.

He returned to California for a while after his grandmother finished her chemotherapy to shoot the video for his latest track, “It’s Our Night,” which he wrote one day in a minivan on Thomas Drive.

“Not the most likely place to write a dance record,” he said. “I love that about it.”

Dottley still bounces back and forth between Bay Point and New York, where he keeps an apartment in Harlem. He plans to return to L.A. to audition for TV pilots for a few months later this year, and he’s going to play some shows in Europe as well.

“I don’t sit still too easily,” he said.

A lot of his work is in nightclubs, so he doesn’t go out often when he’s in town. For him, one of the more exciting things going on around here has been the investigation into missing and dead cats in Bay Point and the rumors about it in the neighborhood.

PANAMA CITY BEACH — Jason Dottley went through an especially public divorce last year.

He was living in Los Angeles, acting and making records, when he and his husband decided to split. The concept of same-sex divorce was a new one to the courts there, sparking media interest. The paparazzi took notice, following the couple with interest, and his story was featured prominently in a “Today” show report last month on the difficulty same-sex couples face when they get divorced.

Dottley was ready to leave L.A. for a while. A couple days later, he was moving in with his mom in Bay Point, where he has found his priorities shifting and a retreat from the fast life.

“It was a combination of, well, one, I just wanted my momma,” he said with a laugh. “That might sound crazy, but I just want my mom.”

Dottley grew up in Mississippi, moving to central Florida in high school, where he first began dabbling in performing at a community theater. After high school, he spent a semester at the University of Mississippi before packing his bags and moving to Hollywood.

In 2008, he played a role in the television series “Sordid Lives,” a spinoff of a play and an independent film by the same name with a cult following in the gay community.

The next year, he recorded his first record, “Party Round the World,” a dance pop track featuring Debby Holiday that peaked at number 19 on Billboard’s Dance/Club Play chart. His subsequent records landed in the top 30 of Billboard’s dance charts, as well.

He’s not exactly a household name, and he doesn’t get recognized very often, with the exception of certain segments of the population.

“The gays do,” he laughed. “I get treated real well in all the hospitals and the E.R. from all the nurses.”

Those happen to be places where he has spent a lot of time lately. He was preparing to go back to L.A. when his grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. He stayed to help care for her, even moving his bed into her bedroom.

“So it turned out that I needed my family when I came here, and then right as I was about to transition out of here they needed me,” Dottley said. “So I said, ‘OK, I can work my job for the most part, from anywhere … so I’ll just work from here for a while.’ ”

He comes and goes, but he’s starting a new venture in the coming weeks with his trainer. He’ll be launching Jason Dottley’s FABU (For a Better You), which he described as a sort of correspondence, self-improvement course emphasizing motivation, nutrition and physical fitness. He said he already has lined up clients locally and around the world.

He returned to California for a while after his grandmother finished her chemotherapy to shoot the video for his latest track, “It’s Our Night,” which he wrote one day in a minivan on Thomas Drive.

“Not the most likely place to write a dance record,” he said. “I love that about it.”

Dottley still bounces back and forth between Bay Point and New York, where he keeps an apartment in Harlem. He plans to return to L.A. to audition for TV pilots for a few months later this year, and he’s going to play some shows in Europe as well.

“I don’t sit still too easily,” he said.

A lot of his work is in nightclubs, so he doesn’t go out often when he’s in town. For him, one of the more exciting things going on around here has been the investigation into missing and dead cats in Bay Point and the rumors about it in the neighborhood.

He’s adjusting to the slower pace of beach living. (He was out of town during Spring Break.) Dottley said he used to get anxious because people were driving too slowly.

“Now I like it,” Dottley said. “I’ve kind of acclimated, and I’ve enjoyed being able to hop off to L.A. or New York or London and take care of my business and come back and, you know, relax. Now, if we could just get the humidity under control.”